The overall objective of the book is to holistically assess the property tax systems in BRICS megacities. As megacities play a vital role within their respective countries - economically, administratively, and from a human development perspective - they experience the costs and benefits of urbanization simultaneously with major investment needs, rising poverty, and increasing congestion and pollution levels in the context of limited financial resources, raising the question for a suitable decentralized funding source. This book highlights the property tax as a means to help further improve the financial sustainability of megacities, the reliability and quality of their services, and megacities' contribution to supporting economic growth.

This book offers a comprehensive guide to modern day taxation issues. It presents a thorough overview of many of the crucial aspects of applied taxation and current tax systems, and presents evidence that supports taxation as an important policy issue requiring immediate address globally. Contributions seek to address the core question of how to design a tax policy mix that can serve primarily efficiency, growth and possibly equity goals at a time where fiscal spending, for many economies, is not a viable option. Chapters provide a historical perspective on taxation, then go on to cover aspects of the modern theory of optimal taxation and tax design and provide valuable international perspectives on current tax practices and much required tax reforms. Empirical analysis on taxation and related economic data help the readers to understand how data-based observations and results are linked to the theory of taxation, and more importantly economic growth, before offering appropriate policy prescriptions. This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners interested in learning more about taxation and why it matters today in the global economy.

In this book, experts discuss how German real estate values have remained stable throughout the financial crisis, even though transaction volumes have been very volatile since 2005. Consequently, risk-averse national and international investors have started to invest in virtually all German real estate asset classes. This book tries to answer what has made the German real estate markets more resilient to shocks than many European real estate markets by analyzing the economic, regulatory and demographic environment. In 30 well-structured chapters, experts from both the academic and professional world analyze structural and current issues of German real estate markets. Readers will get a deep understanding of what makes the German real estate market special and where potential opportunities and threats in Europe's largest real estate market exist.

Erster und bisher einziger steuerlicher Ratgeber fur die aktuell etwa 2 Millionen Eigentumer von Privatwaldern in Deutschland: Privater Waldbesitz erfreut sich immer groesserer Beliebtheit; das Thema Wald ist derzeit stark im Fokus. Doch der Besitz auch kleinerer Walder ist mit steuerlichen Obliegenheiten verbunden, die deren Eigentumer kennen sollten. Das Buch beschreibt klar und anschaulich die mit einem Wald verbundenen steuerlichen Pflichten und Rechte und gibt anhand zahlreicher Beispiele praktische Handlungsempfehlungen.

This book develops new, original methods of welfare comparison and comparative dynamics between distinct and discretely positioned (rather than continuously related) socioeconomic situations. These methods are not only realistic but also extremely relevant to serious economic problems. Using them, the book sheds illuminating new light on the theoretical analysis of Keynesian economics and other important issues of political economy. For instance, it shows that the principle of effective demand applies exactly as Keynes put it to the unemployment equilibrium in the short run. It also shows that the equilibrium may change along the expansion path as the government chooses to vary its expenditure to maximize national welfare. The same methods are effectively employed theoretically to investigate modern trade policy issues such as gains from trade, the theory of tariffs, free trade agreements, and the role of the WTO. Those methods are also used to study the welfare and efficiency of various socioeconomic situations.

This book discusses the latest developments in the China Pilot Free- Trade Zone strategy. It puts forward and explains the idea that building the Shanghai Pilot Free-Trade Zone (SFTZ) is a national test, as it is a major strategic decision to help China cope with the new situation resulting from opening-up and the further implementation of the reform. Based on China's strategic demand in the era of globalization, this book takes into account the global structure of trade, investment and changes in standards, and studies the system of SFTZ. Moreover, based on the national strategy of building international-caliber free-trade zone, it compares the SFTZ with other established free-trade zones and free-port cities. It reveals the overall SFTZ framework and explains in detail aspects of the financial system, investment management, trade supervision, taxation, offshore trade and finance, government system reform, plus the linkage mechanism of building Shanghai as an international economy, finance, trade and shipping center.

This book analyzes the consequences that would arise if Germany's means-tested unemployment benefits were replaced with an unconditional basic income. The basic income scheme introduced is based on a negative income tax and calibrated to be both financially feasible and compatible with current constitutional legislation. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) the author examines the impact of the reform on the household labor supply as well as on both poverty and inequality measures. It is shown that by applying reasonable values for both the basic income and the implied marginal tax rate imposed on earned incomes, efficiency gains can be reconciled with generally accepted value statements. Furthermore, as the proposal includes a universal basic income for families, child poverty could be reduced considerably. The estimates are based on the discrete choice approach to labor supply.

In this book, a number of long-term energy scenarios are developed for Nigeria considering the impact of vital factors that may influence energy policies in the country's future energy system. The energy scenarios were developed through the Long-Range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP) model. The model identified the future energy demand and supply pattern using a least-cost combination of technology options while limiting the emission of greenhouse gases. The book presents four scenarios, and key parameters considered include GDP, households, population, urbanization and the growth rates of energy-intensive sectors. Further, it highlights the findings of the cost-benefit analysis, which reveal the costs of implementing selected policies and strategies in Nigeria, including those focusing on energy efficiency and fuel/technology switching. The book also discusses the application of the LEAP-OSeMOSYS Model in order to identify lowest-cost power plants for electricity generation. Some sustainable strategies that can ensure a low carbon development in Nigeria are also explored on the basis of successful country cases in relation to the Nigerian LEAP model. As such, the book will help policy makers devise energy and sustainable strategies to achieve low carbon development in Nigeria.

This book, dedicated to Prof. Jacques Richard, is about the economic, political, social and even environmental consequences of setting accounting standards, with emphasis on those that are alleged to be precipitated by the adoption and implementation of IFRS. The authors offer their reasoned critiques of the effectiveness of IFRS in promoting genuine global comparability of financial reporting. The editors of this collection have invited authors from 17 countries, so that a great variety of accounting, auditing and regulatory cultures, and educational perspectives, is amply on display in their essays.

This book explores the role of national fiscal policies in a selected group of Euro-area countries under the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). In particular, the authors characterize the response of output to fiscal consolidations and expansions in the small Euro-area open economies affected by high public and private debt. It is shown that the macroeconomic outcome of fiscal shocks is strongly related to debt levels. The Euro-area countries included in the investigation are Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal, over the sample period 1999-2016, i.e., the EMU period. The main econometric tools used in this research are structural vector autoregressive (VAR) models, including panel VAR models. The available literature relating to the subject is also fully reviewed. A further closely investigated topic is the potential spillover effects of German fiscal policies on the selected small Euro-area economies. Moreover, in the perspective of the evolution of the Euro Area towards a full Monetary and Fiscal Union, the authors study the effects of area-wide government spending shocks on aggregate output and other macroeconomic variables during the EMU period. The closing chapter of the book considers evidence on the consequences of austerity policies for European labour markets during recent years.

Comprehensive tutorial coverage to taxation students over a two-year basis. This book covers advanced topics and integrated questions. Questions on SA Tax covers foundational topics and those typically dealt with in the first year of tax study.

This tutorial book includes questions and selected solutions on South African income tax, estate duty and value-added tax. Up-to-date questions are graded allowing students to develop their abilities from an introductory level to an advanced level.

A selection of tutorial solutions is included in the book, and solutions to all questions are provided to lecturers at prescribing institutions. Mark plans are allocated to solutions.

This book discusses voting procedures in collective decision-making. Drawing on well-established election processes from all over the world, the author presents a voting procedure that allows for the speedy but fair election of a proportional, all-party coalition. The methodology - a matrix vote - is accurate, robust and ethno-color blind. In the vote, the counting procedure encourages all concerned to cross the gender as well as any party and/or sectarian divides. While in the resulting executive each party will be represented fairly and, at best, with the consensus of parliament, every minister will be the one most suited to his/her new portfolio. By using preferential voting and thus achieving consensus, the matrix vote will be fundamental to the resolution of conflicts. The matrix vote can also be used when: * two or more parliamentary parties elect a coalition government * one parliamentary party elects a government or shadow cabinet, or organizations in civil society elect their governing boards or executive committees * any group chooses a fixed number of individuals to form a team in which each member carries out a different function

This volume sheds new light on economic developments in several countries of Southeast Europe. The European Union and especially the eurozone continue to experience rhythms of fiscal crisis, as can most clearly be seen in the debt crisis in the South Periphery. Despite the fact that several measures and decisions have been taken to deal with the crisis (banking union, liquidity support from the European Central Bank), proposals to reform Europe's strategic policy in order to find a way out of the crisis have been put forward. This book explores the respective roles that specific sectors, e.g. the agricultural sector, social capital, tax policies and labour immigration, can play in this regard. The importance of international economic relations (exports, imports, FDI, exchange rates) is analysed, in order to illustrate the nature of the economic developments and the major economic difficulties these countries face.

Shortly after speaking with a bullhorn amidst the still-smoking wreckage at the World Trade Center site, President George W. Bush urged Americans to 'get down to Disney World in Florida...take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.' Americans, he implied, should not merely offer sacrifices but return to normalcy. Consistent with this anecdote, his administration cut taxes, and held of efforts by a renegade group of anti-war Congress members to introduce a 'share the sacrifice' war tax for Iraq in 2007. According to the tax's opponents, Americans were already being 'taxed to death.' The ultimate result of all of this is that the government has financed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan entirely through borrowing. As Sarah Kreps shows in Taxing Wars, the type of debt financing for war that we have seen since 9/11 could not have been more different from earlier experiences when wars meant taxation. For instance, in 1914-three years before America's direct involvement in World War I-President Wilson urged war taxes as a way to fund defense preparations. Indeed, the Wilson Administration levied a series of war taxes before, during, and after the war, amounting to about one-third of the war's costs. Why, when Wilson was aiming to recruit rather than repel support for the war, did he introduce measures such as a hefty war tax that recent leaders have considered politically toxic? Why was the public so magnanimous in its willingness to contribute its own resources? By contrast, why did leaders not use the crisis of war, often used as entrees for introducing war taxes in the past, in the aftermath of 9/11 to extract resources from the populace in a way that been customary in the past? More generally, what explains shifting attitudes towards bearing the financial burden of war and the move away from war taxes, and the consequences of that shift? Kreps argues that the starkly different approaches are the result of public attitudes towards wartime fiscal sacrifice that vary depending on the underlying type of war and state-society relations. The public accepted the sacrifices that the state demanded during the two world wars, an effect of both the nature of those wars and the public's more favorable views toward government in that era. However, when these factors combine to make the public cost sensitive, leaders have pursued forms of war finance that anticipate opposition and minimize constraints on the way they use force. In post-1945 wars, the public has become almost uniformly unforgiving of fiscal sacrifice, which explains leaders' increased tendency to rely on less visible forms of finance such as borrowing. The lack of visibility has had an important knock-on effect too: Leaders have been able to increasingly operate without the type of decision-making constraints that were present in earlier war efforts which depended upon broader levels of public support. Her ultimate conclusion is both sobering and extremely important: the deterioration of decision-making accountability with regard to war in the second half of the twentieth century has allowed leaders to wage increasingly costly and protracted wars. And because the health of a democracy can be measured by how responsive leaders are to an informed and attentive public in times of war, our current practices suggest that we are edging ever closer to how non-democracies conduct war.

Taxation involves complex questions of policy, law, and practice. The book offers an innovative introduction to tax research by combining commentary on disciplinary-based and interdisciplinary approaches. Its objective is to guide and encourage researchers how to produce taxation research that is rigorous and relevant. It comments upon how disciplinary-based approaches to tax research have developed in law, economics, accounting, political science, and social policy. Its authors then go to introduce an inter-disciplinary research approach to taxation research. Effective approaches to research problem definition and research method choice are outlined by leading authors in their fields, and topical studies provide bibliographic surveys of specific areas of tax research. The book provides suggestions of topics, readings, and approaches that are intended to help the new researcher choose ways to begin their tax research. Written by a group of international experts, this book will be essential reading for new researchers in the tax field, including PhD students; for existing researchers wishing to broaden their understanding of taxation; for policymakers wanting to gauge where the leading edge of current tax research lies; and for tax practitioners interested in scholarly contributions to their field of practice.

Dieses Buch will unser Steuerrecht an seine Wurzeln zuruckfuhren, zu einem einfachen, gerechten und fur jeden Burger verstandlichen System. Ausgehend von den gegenwartigen Unzulanglichkeiten erlautert der Autor Schritt fur Schritt seine revolutionare Alternative, die Einfuhrung des Obolus: eine einzige Steuer, die alle anderen Abgaben ersetzen soll. Dabei orientiert sich der Obolus nicht am Ertrag, sondern an den Einnahmen. Querverweise zur aktuellen Besteuerung machen die Vorteile offenkundig. Der Autor demonstriert anhand realer Praxisfalle, wie sich die Umstellung des bisherigen Verfahrens auf den Obolus de facto auswirken und das Steuersystem eine bisher nicht gekannte Transparenz erhalten koennte. Der Leser reibt sich verwundert die Augen und fragt sich, warum der Gesetzgeber selbst noch nicht auf diese geniale Idee gekommen ist. Der Inhalt- Unzulanglichkeiten des jetzigen Steuerrechts- Halbteilungsgrundsatz- Grundsatzliches zum Obolus- Oboluspflichtige Einnahmen- Landes- und Gemeindesteuern- Auswirkungen auf das Preisniveau- Beispielrechnungen

Whatever happened to the money supply? This book explains how the analysis of monetary and credit aggregates is undertaken at the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and (as an example of a developing country) the Bank of Tanzania. The book also explores how this analysis relates to these central banks' monetary policy strategies and how it feeds into policymaking. An editorial introduction provides the intellectual and historical background - from the contributions of key economists such as Milton Friedman and Jacques Polak, to monetary targeting and inflation targeting - and argues that central banks and policy analysts would be foolish to neglect the insights monetary analysis can offer. The papers compiled in Monetary Analysis at Central Banks demonstrate just how useful and varied those insights are.

This book examines the many ways in which economic concepts, theories and models can be used to examine issues in higher education. The topics explored in the book include how students make college-going decisions, the payoffs to students and society from going to college, markets for higher education services, demand and supply in markets for higher education, why and how state and federal governments intervene in higher education markets, college and university revenues and expenditures, how institutions use net-pricing strategies and non-price product-differentiation strategies to pursue their goals and to compete in higher education markets, as well as issues related to faculty labor markets. The book is written for both economists and non-economists who study higher education issues and provides readers with background information and thorough explanations and illustrations of key economic concepts. In addition to reviewing the contributions economists have made to the study of higher education, it also examines recent research in each of the major topical areas. The book is policy-focused and each chapter analyses how contemporary higher education policies affect the behaviour of students, faculty and/or institutions of higher education. "Toutkoushian and Paulsen attempted a daunting task: to write a book on the economics of higher education for non-economists that is also useful to economists. A book that could be used for reference and as a textbook for higher education classes in economics, finance, and policy. They accomplish this tough balancing act with stunning success in a large volume that will serve as the go-to place for anyone interested in the history and current thinking on the economics of higher education." William E. Becker, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Economics, Indiana University

This study, first published in 1994, examines an important issue, the repeal of the thirty percent withholding tax imposed by the US on interest payments to non-resident alien individuals and foreign corporations, that is emblematic of the US quest for foreign capital in the 1980s. It presents an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary analytical approach to show how important the access to foreign capital had become on the eve of the US turning into a debtor nation.

This book investigates the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes on macroeconomic instability and economic growth in recipient countries. Employing the New Institutional Economics approach as an analytical framework, it identifies the determinants of economic and political institutional quality by taking into account a broad variety of indicators such as parliamentary forms of government, the aggregate governance level, civil and economic liberties, property rights etc. The book subsequently estimates the impact of these institutional determinants on real economic growth, both directly and also indirectly, through the channel of macroeconomic instability, in recipient countries. Moreover, it illustrates the effectiveness of IMF programmes in the case of Pakistan, a frequent user of IMF resources.

Perfecting your pricing is fundamental to the success of your business. It affects how your customers perceive you, it can make or break a sale, and it's the most powerful key to profitable and sustainable growth. But how do you know your pricing is right? How do you approach making this most crucial of decisions with confidence and clarity? In Pricing for Success, leading pricing expert Mark Peacock takes a fresh look at the power and psychology of pricing and walks you clearly through seven essential steps that will improve your pricing, delight your customers, and create a more profitable business. Through an illuminating and informative blend of straightforward examples, templates and real-life case-studies, presented alongside over fifty expert pricing tips, tools and tactics, you'll discover: Why pricing is your biggest lever for profitable growth The persuasive pricing techniques that have the biggest impact How customer-driven approaches make it easier to boost your bottom line The surprising truth about premium pricing and how its easier to sell How to cleverly structure your offer so you can optimise your prices How to avoid common pricing pitfalls and lose your fear of losing business The time you spend on getting this right is the best investment youll make in your business. So, stop leaving money on the table, start taking control of your pricing and create a powerful new approach to pricing that will unlock higher profits and provide sustainable business growth.

This book presents a theoretical framework to explain chronic inflation and hyperinflation. The roots of these two phenomenon are a fiscal monetary regime in which money issues finance the public deficit. Chronic inflation is modeled by using both the old and the new Keynesian model, with a different policy rule. Instead of using the Taylor rule, the central bank policy rule states that money is issued to finance the public deficit. The chronic inflation models take into account the fact that indexation mechanisms adjust prices and wages, yielding the inertial component of inflation. The dynamics of these models can be very unstable under parameter changes or shocks that hit the economy. The previous hyperinflation models surveyed in this book attempt to explain hyperinflation as a bubble phenomenon because they assume a constant real deficit financed by money. The mechanics of hyperinflation models in this book explains hyperinflation by a fiscal crisis, characterized by an increasing fiscal deficit. This fiscal crisis yields an intertemporal budget constraint that is not sustainable. The analysis of the pathology of hyperinflation uses the same tools employed to understand the pathologies of public debt and external debt crises. The hyperinflation model allows a taxonomy of hyperinflations, namely bubble, weak and strong, that can be tested with the inflation tax revenue curve.